In a June 2013 sermon at Hillside International Truth Center, ordained minister and professor Michael Eric Dyson held the Black Church to account for its homophobia. In a clip posted on YouTube, Dyson began with the observation that many in the church want to “kill the gay Issacs in our community and we think God told us to do it.”

Dyson then compared homophobia in the Black Church to the racism espoused by many whites, saying “Black folk beating up on gay people… we doing the same thing white folk did to us.”

In addition, Dyson made the point the Black Church has benefited from gay people in the church and should welcome that blessing.

“We [are} using gay people all over the church, in the choir, in the dance ministry, in the pew, and in the pulpit. Some of the most rabidly anti-gay figures are secretly gay themselves.”

However, he cautioned Black Christians against blaming gay members for not coming out of the closet since the Black Church doesn’t create a safe space for them to come out.

“That’s our fault, too”, said Dyson. “If we provided them a safe space to come out, they wouldn’t have to act like they straight.”

This is not the first time that Dyson has stood up for gay rights. While debating Sophia Nelson on MSNBC in 2012, Dyson said that the church is marginalizing gay people.

“You’re throwing [the gay community] a bone by saying, ‘Look, I believe in civil unions’ and the like, but what you’re not addressing is the fact that your faith fuels the belief that to be gay is to be automatically a sinner, to be gay is to be outside of the covenant of God. And I’m arguing that that automatically disqualifies gay and lesbian, transgender and bisexual people as your equals in the faith,” argued Dyson.